National Flag. CSW/--- 2:3

Regarding the usage, our task regarding Slovakian flag would be to find
legislation regarding the use of the flag on sea (rivers
etc.) As Slovakia is a Danubian country, it must maintain at least
some river police boats on the river, and probably some military ones as
well. There must exist a regulation for the military ensign, and certainly
for a state ensign (for use on river police boats). I have no doubt that
these are the same as the national flag, but... Also, there must be some
regulation regarding the privatly owned
ships/boats of the Slovak register. They would be navigating the Danube,
but also I would expect to find them on pleasure boats
(yachts etc.) in Adriatic and elsewhere. I do remember seing yachts
and speed-boats beraing Czech ensign on Adriatic, and while I have not
yet seen a Slovak one, I am sure that there should be one. Also, as a party
that signed the Danube Convention, Slovakia would probably use similar
signalling pennant on their river authoirities boats as used by other Danube
countries, typicaly white pennant with blue voided lozenge. Can we find
any reference to it in SK legislation. (For that matter, we would need
confirmation of such pennant from some other Danube countries, too.).
Zeljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003

Flag construction sheet

by Zeljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003

White over blue over red tricolour with the coat of arms off-set to
the hoist fimbriated white. The Album2000
gives construction details as (15~+5~+20+5~+15~):(27+63), that I shall
show are quite correct, and even the ~ could be removed altogether. The
construction of the flag is simply but efficiently described in the legislation
on the State Symbols of the Slovak Republic ("Zákon o štátnych symboloch
Slovenskej republiky a ich používaní", Zbierka zákonov č. 63/1993;
relevant extract available,
also
Pascal Vagnat's translation present at FOTW). The size of the CoA is
key here, and it is not expresly stated in the legislation (maybe it is
in the annexes? can anyone confirm?). However, from several official images
of the CoA I have seen, it seems that it fits well in square 4x5 (also,
not that the width is meximal around the middle of the height).

To avoid any quotient in the construction sheet, and because of the
requirement that the fimbriation around the shield is 1/100 of the flag
length, one needs to make flag consisting of 600x900 units. The height
of the CoA is half the hoist, i.e. 300, the width 4/5 of it, i.e. 240.
The law determines that the distance of the CoA from top, bottom and hoist
edge is equal, that would make it 150. The white fimbriation in the blue
and red stripes is 9 units wide. As these units are exactly 10 times smaller
then those used in Album, the analogy is obvious, however I decided to
show different parts on my sheet. And as it is shown, there is no need
for ~ in the sheet in the Album.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003

Vertical hanging Slovakian flag

by Zeljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003

A vertical flag/banner is also prescribed in the legislation mentioned
above. This is understandably not included in Album (that
concentrates primarly on naval usage, however whide). The height of
the flag is prescribed as maximally triple the width, while minimum is
not prescribed at all. I guess that 2:3 would somehow be reasonable minimum
and that rarely would vertical flags reach that short sizes anyway. The
vertical banner should always be hoisted hanging on a crossbar. Distance
of the shield from left, top and right edges is still to be equal.
Zeljko Heimer, 18 Jan 2003

History of the Slovakian flag

The first Slovak flag was white-red bicolore
and was waved on 23rd April 1848 in Brezová during a theatre performance.
A petition signed on 10th May 1848 in Liptovský Sv. Mikulaš demanded not
only constitutional or educational rights for Slovaks but also permission
for using red and white Slovak flags. This was rejected by the Hungarians
as well as the other demands. In August 1848 the blue color was added and
in 18th September 1848 in Velká nad Veličkou on the Hungarian-Moravian
border the Slovak revolutionaries hoisted various Slovak and Slav flags
combining red, white and blue in many variations. Some of them depicted
the original Hungarian coat of arms, only the green colour of the three
hills was replaced by blue. The present order of the three stripes of Slovak
flag was established after 1868. These three colors were often used by
the Slovak associations in the United States. They were also used on the
Czechoslovak flag adopted on 30th March 1920, where the blue triangle at
the hoist represented Slovakia. After the puppet Slovak Republic was established,
the law of 23rd June 1939 enacted the white-blue-red tricolore as the state
flag. The same flag was enacted after the Velvet Revolution on 1st March
1990 by the Slovak National Council. The constitution of September 1992
added the coat of arms because the flag could be mistaken for the one of
Russia.

The present-day state flag of the Slovak Republic is described in article
9, paragraph 2 of the Slovak Constitution, which was enacted on 1st September
1992. It was hoisted for the first time on 3rd September 1992 at 20:22
CET in front of the Bratislava Castle. But its exact form was determined
by law of 18th February 1993, enacted by the National Council of the Slovak
Republic. According to this law, height of the shield with Slovak state
coat of arms is equal to half of width of the flag. The shield is separated
from the blue and red stripes by the white stripe. Its width is equal to
the one hundredth of the flag's length.
Source: Ales Brozek - Lexikon vlajek a znaku sveta, Kartografie
Praha 1998Jan Kravcik, 6 June 2000

The Czechoslovak split

Slovakia adopted its triband with arms shifted to the hoist officially
on 1 september 1992 and it was first hoisted two days later.
Mark Sensen, 2 July 1996

Before the separation of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, a resolution
was passed by the Czechoslovak government that neither of the two "new"
states could continue to use the red white and blue flag of Czechoslovakia.
Upon separation, Slovakia adopted the White/Blue/Red flag with the shield
of arms in the upper hoist. The "new" Czech Republic adopted the flag of
former Czechoslovakia, in direct violation of the resolution mentioned
above. Slovakia was ticked off over this, but the Czech folks said "The
country that made that rule doesn't exist any more" and refused to change.
Nick Artimovich 31 October 1996

The Constitution of 1990 set up the Czech Lands and Slovakia as two
equal nations. Each was to have its own arms, seal, flag and anthem, and
these were laid down in laws of 1990. The Czech Republic
adopted a greater and lesser coat of arms and the flag of white over red
on 13 March 1990. The Slovak Republic legislation was dated 1 March 1990,
and laid down the arms (almost identical with those of pre-Communist era),
the flag (the plain tricolor), seal and anthem. The flag of the state was
unchanged. As indicated before, the agreement was made by two countries
upon separation not to adopt the previous state's emblems, but the Czech
Republic adopted flag with blue triangle as its flag on 17 December 1992.
Zeljko Heimer, 1 November 1996